Drought tanker ships considered

Converted oil tankers could ship water to parched south-east England from Norway and Scotland if drought conditions worsen, Britain's biggest water company said yesterday.

Richard Aylard of Thames Water said emergency planners were investigating whether obsolete single-hulled tankers could be cleaned and equipped to transport millions of gallons of water by sea, because it was more practical than trying to move it by land. "It would be an extraordinary thing to do, but if we get into an extraordinary situation we have to look at extraordinary measures," he said.

He added the scheme would be "a last resort" and that it was better to use existing supplies more wisely. Suggestions that water could be piped from elsewhere in the UK or sent along the canal system were unrealistic because of high pumping costs, he told a meeting at the London assembly. Water cannot be compressed or converted to a form easily transported over large distances. Road tankers would be unable to transport enough water to make a significant difference.

Thames Water's ongoing hosepipe ban has cut demand by 2%. The company, which supplies water to 8 million people across London and the south-east, will decide today whether to ask the government for an emergency drought order, which would give it the power to restrict all non-essential uses of water.

The Environment Agency has urged the firm to apply for a drought order, but Mr Aylard said: "Once we start moving to a non-essential use ban and drought orders we start to really impact on people's livelihoods and we need to look very carefully at that before bringing in restrictions."